2. -- The economic calendar in the U.S. Thursday includes weekly initial jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EDT, the third estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product at 8:30 a.m., and pending homes sales for August at 10 a.m.

3. -- U.S. stocks on Wednesday fell for a fifth session as the S&P 500 posted its longest losing streak since December, reflecting uncertainty about the strength of the economic recovery and a deal on the U.S. budget.

The S&P 500 slipped 0.27% to 1,692.77 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.4% to 15,273.26. The Nasdaq fell 0.19% to 3,761.10.

The settlement could include $7 billion in cash and $4 billion for consumers, the sources told the news agency.

The talks are fluid and the $11 billion amount could change, the people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The discussions include the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the New York State attorney general, the sources said, Reuters reported.

JPMorgan is the biggest bank in the U.S. by assets.

5. -- Twitter has added two more banks, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley ( MS) to help lead its coming initial public offering, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

The banks will join Goldman Sachs ( GS), which until now has been working exclusively with Twitter to prepare its IPO filing and will remain in the top role, the people said.

In a tweet last month, Twitter announced its filing, which still remains private.

Twitter's IPO could come in November, people close to the company said, the Journal reported.

6. -- Nokia's ( NOK) board has discussed pursuing a tie-up with Alcatel-Lucent ( ALU), following Nokia's recent deal to sell its handset business to Microsoft ( MSFT), MarketWatch reported, citing several people familiar with the deliberations.

Nokia's internal discussions on the issue are part of a broad review of many potential options for its future business strategy. It has discussed "all options" concerning a potential Alcatel-Lucent deal, but no formal discussions with Alcatel have been initiated, the people told MarketWatch.

7. -- Citigroup ( C) agreed to pay $395 million to Freddie Mac to settle claims on home loans it sold to the government-controlled mortgage finance company.

The agreement announced Wednesday involves 3.7 million mortgages sold between 2000 and 2012. Freddie Mac and its bigger sibling Fannie Mae pressed Citigroup and other big banks to take back mortgages they sold, which soured in the housing bust. In July, Citigroup agreed to pay $968 million to settle similar claims from Fannie.